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"Improbable Rescue" & a NaNo Update

In his delightfully wacky Pronoia Is the Antitode for Paranoia, Rob Brezsny writes:

"Bach's St Matthew Passion is a highly regarded musical composition. Yet the score disappeared and the work wasn't played for years after Bach's death in 1750. In 1829, composer Felix Mendelssohn rediscovered the long-lost manuscript being used as wrapping paper in the estate sale of a deceased cheese salesman. He arranged for a public performance of the piece, and its revival began."

Please note the marvelous specificity: "being used as wrapping paper in the estate sale of a deceased cheese salesman."

Wow. St. Matthew's Passion being used as wrapping paper makes my heart weep a little. I mean, I'm not a Bach fan. I recognize that he was incredibly influential, but his music isn't my style. That's partly because, as a singer, me and Bach don't get along. He wrote for really easy-moving, light voices, and my voice is... Well, it's big. I can sing high, but if you want me to sing up there, mark it double forte, because that's what you're going to get. Well, that's actually a lie. I can float up there, too, but my voice is always going to have some depth and weight to it where as a light coloratura soprano is going to sounds smaller than me. Part of me would sell my left eye to be able to do the things that coloraturas can do, but I personally really enjoy busting out a high note. haha

But I digress...

On to the exercise!

... cricket cricket ... The only thing rolling through my head is Bach's cheese-covered manuscript. Ahhh! I hate when this happens. Ok. What's cultural? Music, yes, but other things. Architectural floorplans, paintings, sculptures... (Side note: These sentences are not counting toward my 5. This is just me thinking aloud.) Letters would work.

Mimi Herschmeier was shocked when the paper she had been carting around for years around her house was identified as a draft by architect Henry Hobson Richardson. She had stowed it away in her attic after her father deemed it worthless when it did not provide adequate enough markings for refurbishing their home. He bought it as a brainstormer from a garage sale when he decided that their house needed to be spruced up.

END

I didn't really like that one, but it popped into my head, so I went with it. Ah, well.

NaNo UPDATE!! hehe Last night before turning in to bed, I topped out at 5500 words. Go me! I must say, I am so proud of myself. I had doubts going in to NaNo thinking that I would most assuredly give up after the first day, but I proved myself wrong! Woo! Granted, the majority of what I have written thus far is complete and utter crap, but it doesn't matter. I'm getting the basics of my idea down on paper, learning about my characters, and - most importantly - writing the crap out of it! I'm anxious about next week when the blockages are supposed to start hitting, but I'll cross those bridges when I get there.

How are all of my lovely NaNo-participating readers doing? Keeping up with the word count? Is your story as craptastically written as mine? haha

Comments

Great job! I just hit the 15,000 mark, thanks to a really strong start on Sunday. A lot of my stuff is crap that will end up on the cutting room floor, but I'm hoping to end up with a good starting point. You know what I mean? It's day four and I'm already exhausted, but I'm forcing myself to write a little bit every day. Yesterday, I only managed about 45 minutes, today just over an hour. I steal time whenever I can, but I'm not seeing any hope of writing tomorrow as it's finals day for me and I have 50 papers to grade along with the final exams. I'll pick NaNo up again (hopefully) on Friday, which is why I pushed so hard at the beginning of the week.

Jeez, do you see what NaNo's done? It's totally increased my diarrhea of the word processor :)

Laura, you know, I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever as to how I find the time to do both. I think I'm a curious brand of crazypants. haha I think it's more that I just blog writing exercises. They only take 5 minutes at a time, so it doesn't suck up too much of my day. Plus, they're a good way to get my brain going right before I sit down to write. For example, I did my writing exercise and then proceeded to write approximately 3,000 words today. :)

GunDiva, the next 2 days are really hectic for me, too, so I'll probably be taking a break from the novel in order to focus on school stuff. Come the weekend, however, it's going to be mad writing. hehe

Without further ado, the One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying, Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooley:

Great, huh? I don't remember when I was first introduced to this all-sorts-of-wonderful song, but I'm pretty sure it was care of my Mom. She definitely has provided quite a bit of the humor in my life, and I'm sure she's one of the big reasons…

Exercise #83 : "Yellow List"
What things are yellow? Make a list. At the end of the five minutes, note the three you find most curious.
Ah, yellow. One of my least favorite colors. I mean, it's nice and all, but there are so many versions of this color that are simply eye-raping. Anyways, on with the list.